Debian Developer Conference Under Way in New York City

The Debian Developer Conference, the world's
largest GNU/Linux distribution developers conference, is taking place
at Columbia University Aug. 1-7.

The Debian Project, the team behind the free
Debian GNU/Linux operating system, is inviting developers to
participate in the event. This year's conference is sponsored by the
Columbia University Computer Science Department and the 2010 conference
marks the first time the DebConf has been held in the United States.

Debian GNU/Linux is a free computer operating
system. More than 3,000 volunteers from all over the world work
together to create and maintain Debian software. Debian is the
operating system behind several other Linux distributions. For
instance, Debian spawned the popular Ubuntu Linux
distribution. Debian also spawned Xandros, Linspire, DreamLinux and
others. Translated into 27 languages, and supporting a huge range of
computer architectures, Debian calls itself the "universal operating
system" and is the largest free software project in the world. In the
United States, Debian is backed by Software in the Public Interest, a
not-for-profit public charity.

DebConf is the Debian Project's developer
conference. In addition to a full schedule of technical, social and
policy talks, DebConf provides an opportunity for developers,
contributors and other interested people to meet in person and work
together more closely. It has taken place annually since 2000 in
locations as varied as Canada, Finland and Mexico.

This year, more than 300 developers from all
over the world, including Brazil, Argentina, Bosnia, Mexico, Canada,
Western Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Venezuela, and Latvia,
will participate in the conference.

Every year, DebConf enables new and existing
Debian project participants from around the world to assemble, share
knowledge and ideas, make collaborative contributions to Debian, and
build tighter community bonds. Conference costs are largely supported
by corporate sponsors who find significant interest in supporting
Debian and DebConf.

For the first time, DebConf will host "tracks,"
featuring a cluster of talks linked by a common theme. These include
tracks on Science/Math, Java, Enterprise Systems, Debian Community
Outreach and Media and Art in Debian. Other talks will cover technical,
licensing and community issues by a host of Debian developers and other
leaders in the Free Software community. Eben Moglen, chairman of the
Software Freedom Law Center and professor of Law at Columbia
University, will be the conference's plenary speaker on Aug. 3 at 10
a.m.

Moreover, DebConf also included Debian Day,
which was held on Aug. 1. When the conference opened its doors, anyone
interested in finding out more about Debian and free software could ask
questions of experts. During this event, there was a full day of talks
on a variety of subjects such as free software advocacy, free software
usability, and a number of talks on the Debian project and operating
system itself.